1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid pasteurizing apparatus and a method therefor for pasteurizing liquid, such as water for drinking, beverages such as juice or beer and water for industrial use, and in particular, to a continuous pasteurizing apparatus and a method therefor that is able to continuously pasteurize the liquid which is supplied continuously.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, various methods for disinfecting or pasteurizing liquid, such as drinking water, are known and have been applied, including boiling the water by heating thereof, and putting a disinfectant or germicide into the water. Among these methods of disinfecting or pasteurization, as one pasteurizing method for liquid that uses electricity, there is already known a method that utilizes high voltage pulses. In this method, the water, i.e., the liquid to be treated or processed, is introduced into a vessel or container in which a pair of electrodes are provided, and the high voltage pulses are applied thereacross so as to pasteurize the water with the high electric field caused thereby.
Further, in an another method using electric fields for the pasteurizing or disinfecting of liquid or water, for example, as shown in FIG. 14 attached hereto, water to be processed is introduced into a vessel or container and a coil made of titanium is dipped into it. Then, an alternating current voltage (for example, a commercial power source of 200 V) is applied thereto, while the water in the vessel is stirred by a stirrer.
However, in the known pasteurizing or disinfecting methods mentioned above, since the water to be treated is first introduced into the vessel or container once, they cannot be therefore considered continuous pasteurizing methods for processing water continuously, and they have low efficiency. Further, the conventional methods necessitate a sufficient number of electrical pulses for pasteurizing the water completely, therefore it takes a long time for the processing. As a result of this, in accordance with the conventional methods mentioned above, it is impossible to insure or obtain a sufficient amount of treated or processed water therewith.